SHEFFIELD MILLS — Farmers continue to struggle with hot, dry weather, but there is one crop that’s thriving.

“I’ve never ever seen it like this,” Earl Kidston, one of the principals in the Nova Agri-Group, owner of Blueberry Acres, said in an interview at the Sheffield Mills, Kings County, farm Tuesday.

“We have, by far, the biggest crop we’ve ever had,” Kidston said as he surveyed a portion of the 74 hectares in high-bush blueberry production.

Kidston said a mild winter combined with good pollination has resulted in a bumper crop. And the summer weather is forcing the berries to ripen fast.

High-bush blueberries undergo extensive irrigation with sprinklers and built-in watering systems among the bush rows, so heat and drought-like conditions have not been a problem.

The biggest issue for Kidston and Blueberry Acres, a division of family-owned Dykeview Farms, is getting enough pickers to harvest the extensive crop.

“I’m a little worried,” said Kidston, who opened Blueberry Acres with his brother Bob in 1991. “This year, we’re going to have a problem, with the crop so large.”

The harvest is about two weeks earlier than usual, taking some pickers off guard. Many are still in the fields picking beans and other vegetables.

The farm employs more than 300 people, 70 full-time and the rest seasonal harvesters. On a good day, there can be as many as 250 to 300 pickers.

The business, one of the largest high-bush blueberry growers in Canada, also operates the Between the Bushes restaurant on the site, and is an eco-tourism destination, with as many as 300 people a day visiting on bus tours.

It markets its product under the Country Magic brand name in the Maritimes, across Canada and into some eastern U.S. states, as well as Europe and Iceland.

Kidston said he expects the crop to top 590,000 kilograms1.3 million pounds this year, up at least 20 per cent from previous years.

“It could be even bigger than that; we’ll see as we go along.”

The business is undergoing a major expansion, with 6,500 square feet of new space added to the processing, cold storage and packing plants.

“And we’ve spent the past several years investing in new varieties and irrigation systems,” said Kidston, 62. “Irrigation and frost protection are key.”

He said a lot of crops at neighbouring Dykeview Farms are suffering from the dry weather, including corn, wheat and soybeans.

“Those crops are excellent this year, but we’re losing yields in the ones we can’t irrigate. And we can’t get to the potatoes fast enough to irrigate.